Good news on Ginsburg

Today Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from the hospital, and she is now recuperating from last week’s pancreatic cancer surgery at home, according to the Supreme Court’s press office.

The Court also reports that cancer “has been determined as TNM Stage 1” by doctors at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, meaning that it had not spread to other parts of Ginsburg’s body. Also, all her lymph nodes have tested negative. During the Feb. 5 procedure, Ginsburg’s spleen and parts of her pancreas were removed.

The Court’s announcement also notes the lucky twist that led to Ginsburg early discovery of the cancer. “Extraordinarily, the approximately 1 cm lesion revealed on a late January CAT scan, the discovery of which led to the February 5 surgery, proved benign,” the statement said. “But in searching the entire pancreas Dr. [Murray] Brennan identified a previously undetected single, even smaller, tumor which upon examination was found malignant.”